Iwo Jima Monument Near Quantico Suffers Hundreds Of Thousands In Damage

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A Virginia man allegedly beheaded one of six statues at the Iwo Jima monument near the Quantico Marine base, resulting in what police estimate to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, from Stafford, was reportedly“actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer” when Prince William County police arrived at the site on Wednesday night, according to the incident report.

The alleged attack caused one of the monument's Marine figures to lose its head, while a second figure sustained a“chipped and gouged” helmet and face. Additionally, the stone bayonet from the rifle carved onto the back of a third statue was reported missing. Maldonado Soriano has been arrested and faces two felony charges, injury to a monument and destruction of property, along with a misdemeanor charge of trespass with intent to damage property. He is currently being held without bond pending a court appearance, and a representative for his assigned attorney declined to comment.

This vandalized monument is a smaller replica of Arlington's Marine Corps War Memorial. The memorial depicts the iconic scene captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, showing six US Marines raising the US flag atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II. Rosenthal's photograph actually documented the second flag-raising on the mountaintop, and he denied accusations of staging the scene until his death. Of the six Marines depicted, only three survived the war, with the other three killed within weeks of the photograph, before the battle for the mountaintop officially concluded.

Source: ARTnews

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